The ACT Heritage Council's decision to list the 1950s Deakin home will come under review in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal after the owners applied to overturn it.

At the heart of a dispute appears to be a question around whether renovations and upgrades to the property in the intervening years have made the original design unrecognisable.

Owner Michael Bowden and his family say the decision was "unfounded and entirely detrimental", and will severely impact their freedom to develop the home, as well as decrease its value.

"I greatly resent the intrusion of the ACT Heritage Council into my family's life and the repeated threat of heritage listing," Mr Bowden wrote in documents lodged with the tribunal.

Mr Bowden would not be interviewed before The Canberra Times published its story last week, saying the issue was before the tribunal.

A junior public servant Ivor Bowden commissioned the then up and coming architect Mr Seidler to design the home before it was built on Northcote Crescent in the 1950s.

It was first nominated in 2000, but the decision to register the property came 18 years later in December 2018.

The council says the home demonstrates Bauhaus design principles in "one of the most significant examples of the early post-war international style in a detached residential building in the ACT."

Heritage council chairman David Flannery said Bowden House met the heritage criteria to a high degree and the council had come to its decision after a robust assessment and would maintain its position.

On Monday, Eric Martin, spokesman of the National Trust ACT, said Mr Seidler was an internationally renowned architect and the Deakin home was worthy of recognition.

He said the council's decision to list the home had the support of the trust.

Among the arguments Mr Bowden is making to challenge the decision is that the property has undergone significant changes since it was built in the 1950s.

Mr Bowden, the current owner, has almost finished a 10-year plan of "major renovations, modifications and improvements, including alterations and additions", the documents say.

The original six-room house now has 12, soon to be 14, rooms, and according to Mr Bowden almost every element of the house has changed in the ensuing six decades.

But Mr Martin said the building had maintained its key heritage values through the changes.

He added that heritage listing added a level of control over further changes but did not prevent adaptations provided they were sympathetic with the design and did not damage the values.

Mr Martin, who lives in a heritage listed property built in 1859, said he had had a studio extension and a kitchen installed since the property was listed with his support.

Mr Martin said it was his view that properties should be assessed for heritage value independently of the property's owner and the potential conflict of interest.

Once the decision was made, owners had an avenue of appeal in which a third party, in the form of the tribunal, would then ultimately decide, he said.

Once heritage listed, a development application for a listed property will be forwarded to ACT Heritage for advice as part of the assessment process, according to the Heritage ACT website.

Penalties apply for works which diminish the heritage significance of a building.